document.write( "Question 694702: This one is kinda urgent..please i will appreciate ANY kind of help-
\n" ); document.write( "\"Imagine that you are on a street
\n" ); document.write( "with houses marked 1 through n. There is a
\n" ); document.write( "house in between (x) such that the sum of
\n" ); document.write( "the house numbers to left of it equals the
\n" ); document.write( "sum of the house numbers to its right. If n is
\n" ); document.write( "between 50 and 500, what are n and x?\"
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Algebra.Com's Answer #428483 by KMST(5328)\"\" \"About 
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I do not see the whole elegant solution, but maybe this helps.
\n" ); document.write( "A sum of consecutive house numbers is the sum of an arithmetic sequence/progression, which can be calculated as the average of the first and last terms, times the number of terms.
\n" ); document.write( "The sum of the numbers of the houses to one side is
\n" ); document.write( "1+2+3+ ... +(x-2)+(x-1)=\"%281%2B%28x-1%29%29%28x-1%29%2F2=x%28x-1%29%2F2\"
\n" ); document.write( "The sum of the numbers of the houses to the other side is
\n" ); document.write( "(x+1)+(x+2)+ ... +(n-1)+n=\"%28x%2B1%2Bn%29%28n-x%29%2F2\"
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\n" ); document.write( "So \"x%28x-1%29%2F2=%28x%2B1%2Bn%29%28n-x%29%2F2\" --> \"x%28x-1%29=%28x%2B1%2Bn%29%28n-x%29\" --> \"x%5E2-x=n%5E2%2Bn-n%5E2-x\" --> \"2x%5E2=n%5E2%2Bn\" --> \"2x%5E2=n%28n%2B1%29\"
\n" ); document.write( "Since they are consecutive integers,
\n" ); document.write( "\"n\" and \"n%2B1\" cannot have any common factors.
\n" ); document.write( "For their product to be twice a perfect square, we need two perfect squares with no common factors:
\n" ); document.write( "one perfect square will be a factor of \"n\",
\n" ); document.write( "and another perfect square will be a factor of \"n%2B1\"
\n" ); document.write( "Calling the larger one \"a%5E2\",
\n" ); document.write( "either \"system%28n=a%5E2%2C%28n%2B1%29%2F2=b%5E2%29\" --> \"2b%5E2=a%5E2%2B1\" <--> \"a%5E2=2b%5E2-1\",
\n" ); document.write( "or \"system%28n%2F2=b%5E2%2Cn%2B1=a%5E2%29\" --> \"2b%5E2%2B1=a%5E2\",
\n" ); document.write( "for some mutually prime positive integers \"a\" and \"b\", with \"a%3Eb\"
\n" ); document.write( "whose squares must be between \"25=50%2F2\" and \"501\"
\n" ); document.write( "Since \"sqrt%2825%29=5\" and \"sqrt%28501%29%3C23\", we should look at numbers from 5 to 22.
\n" ); document.write( "As the larger square \"a%5E2\" is an odd number \"a%5E2=2b%5E2+%2B-+1\", \"a\" is an odd number, and cannot be 22, so we should look at numbers from 5 to 22.
\n" ); document.write( "We are looking for a pair such that the square of the larger number is one more or one less than double the square of the smaller number.
\n" ); document.write( "We try numbers from 5 on as the smaller number \"b\", and see what works.
\n" ); document.write( "I tried them making a table, which is hard for me to render here, so I will just show the calculations.
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=5\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A5%5E2=50\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=49%3C50\" and \"2b%5E2%2B1=51\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=6\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A6%5E2=72\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=71\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=73\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=7\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A7%5E2=98\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=97\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=99\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=8\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A8%5E2=128\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=127\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=129\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=9\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A9%5E2=162\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=161\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=163\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=10\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A10%5E2=200\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=199\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=201\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=11\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A11%5E2=242\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=241\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=243\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=12\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A6%5E2=288\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=287\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=highlight%28289=17%5E2%29\"
\n" ); document.write( "The pair \"b=12\" and \"a=17\" with \"a%5E2=2b%5E2%2B1\" , works with \"system%28n%2F2=b%5E2%2Cn%2B1=a%5E2%29\",
\n" ); document.write( "so \"n%2B1=a%5E2\" --> \"n%2B1=17%5E2\" --> \"n%2B1=289\" --> \"highlight%28n=288%29\"
\n" ); document.write( "and \"2x%5E2=n%28n%2B1%29\" --> \"2x%5E2=288%2A289\" --> \"x%5E2=288%2A289%2F2\" --> \"x%5E2=%0D%0A41616\" --> \"highlight%28x=204%29\"
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\n" ); document.write( "Since we expect only one solution, we could stop here.
\n" ); document.write( "Otherwise we would try further to see that nothing else works.
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=13\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A13%5E2=339\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=337\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=339\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=14\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A14%5E2=392\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=391\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=393\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b=15\" --> \"2b%5E2=2%2A15%5E2=450\" --> \"2b%5E2-1=449\"=not a square and \"2b%5E2%2B1=451\"=not a square
\n" ); document.write( "\"b%3E=16\" --> \"2b%5E2%3E=2%2A16%5E2=512\" --> \"2b%5E2%2B1%3E2b%5E2-1%3E=511%3E501\"=not a number that could be \"n\" or \"n%2B1\"
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